Blogs about Theatre

Four years ago this production was supposed to happen – the pandemic happened instead. On the occasion of Alan Ayckbourn’s 85th birthday, however, I thought it was high time that I reshared my thoughts about …

Text of the day: “The dawn comes on,/ and the blood-red sun on the eastern marshes/ burns like a distant forest fire./ I don’t look back. I run into the morning.” (Charley in Ben Power’s …

“He do the police in different voices.” If ever one phrase summed up a work of fiction, and the art of its writer, then surely it is this description, by Charles Dickens in his 1865 …

Showcase: Most worthwhile Traverse: Fri 3 May 2024 Report by Allan Wilson Framework Theatre’s Louder is a showcase for “semi-staged draft works of 4 brand new plays, all written & directed by early-career artists of …

In the nineteen fifties, my grandmother Atkinson got herself into a state of wretched cowment because neighbours up to three doors down on either side might hear her at her business in her new indoorsy …

In Scandinavian and Russian folklore, the ‘hour of the wolf’ occurs between 3 and 4am – the time when people are most prone to being kept awake at night by crippling worries, as well as …

Review from: The Peacock Theatre (Sadlers Wells), London; 3rd February 2024 I approach circus-theatre with an element of dread, fearful[…] The post ‘Tess’, by Ockham’s Razor appeared first on The Circus Diaries.

Having spent a career examining and analysing the balance of power in UK institutions and their state-of-the-nation implications, James Graham’s latest work is now starting to look at the impact of those structures on the …

With the munchkins getting older, it’s getting harder to find shows aimed at their age group. As we said in last week’s review of Romeo and Juliet at Polka Theatre, it’s rare that you come …

Strutting onstage in what looks a lot like David Bowie’s fantastic, red, white and black silk Kansai Yamamoto cape Jack Docherty arrives onstage in David Bowie and Me: Parallel Lives. It turns out it’s a …

If there was any doubt as to the loss this will have, WNO brought the big guns out to play, producing a stunning weeks’ worth of music drama that showed that when opera is really …

Writer/actor Panos Kandunias brings his show I Bought A Flip Phone to Brighton Fringe this month. He chats to us about it below. Where and when: The Actors on 11 and 12 May at 5pm …

As long as there are phoney celebrities, there will always be Chicago. Whereas the previous three outings were spaced ten years apart, this fourth Australian tour of the iconic 1996 Broadway revival comes only five …

Design credit: www.designevo.com We’ve had Mind The Bard, we’ve had Mind The Bard: 2 Bard 2 Spurious, we’ve had Mind The Bard 3: Hospital Shift, Mind The Bard 4: Tyrant Fever – so we now …

Picture: Pamela Raith Photography 42 Balloons continues at The Lowry, Salford until 19 May 2024. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Perhaps the first stroke of genius in Jack Godfrey’s new musical …

There’s a trailer for an American version of Re-Animator The Musical that features a large cast, impressive songs and a heavy dose of blood and gore that makes it look like it’s a delight, at …

Leaving aside the fact that I've been unable to think of this as anything other than The Ballad of Hattie Jacques (and pretty much the first thing Jan said when he arrived at the theatre …

by Zahid Fayyaz Following on from his success run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, Jason Byrne brings his one-man play to London for a few dates. On a stage set up to look like …

Love's Labour's Lost, starring Luke Thomson, is the play that got me back to Stratford. It's been years since I jumped on a train to the West Midlands as it's become more of a faff …

Bonnie and Clyde (Tour)New Victoria TheatreOriginally blazing onto the Broadway scene in 2011, Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical quickly gained a cult following for its bold storytelling and infectious tunes. Since finally debuting in London …